Light curves in the IVOA

[Douglas Tody]

On Tue, 22 Jun 2010, Rob Seaman wrote:

> Roy and Rob were suggesting Josh Bloom's SimpleTimeSeries be used for
> VOEvent.  I'm not sure what you don't like, since you just suggested
> the same thing :-)

There is no problem with VOEvent defining a simplified and integrated
representation for embedding simple light curves directly in a VOEvent
packet (see my last email for details).  This makes sense and I am
all for it.  Keep it simple, and point to the general VO time series,
image, spectrum, etc. representations for external archive data not
specific to VOEvent.  The latter address the more general problem and
should be used for access to general time series or light curve data
in persistent archives.

The issue is suggesting that this be used for general time series
data in VO, which is what I think many of us are hearing.  The recent
discussion has been about how to provide for time series data in VO,
not in VOEvent.

> By all means pursue broader standards as well, and VOEvent will link to
> them externally when they are available.  It would be inappropriate,
> however, not at all "doing it right", to embed extremely complex
> semantics internally within a VOEvent packet.

Sure - Subset and restrict the more general model as necessary to
provide the relevant time variability information on the object within
a VOEvent packet.  We do the same thing elsewhere.

 	- Doug